When farmers in Stanton County finally got a wildfire that burned 60 square miles under control, they thought they the worst was over. In reality, it had just begun.
"First the air was full of ash and then full of dirt," says farmer Steve Arnold, who lives near Johnson City. "We didn't get rain, the grass blew out and with the residue all burned, the fields have just blown and blown."
Arnold says he can't even imagine the amount of topsoil that is long gone, but his fields are now exposed sand dunes.
SOIL PROBES: Arnold labels each soil probe with the location it was taken from and the date and stores them in his pickup truck. He will have them analyzed to learn their content.
"I'm back to where we were after the 1930s," he said. "Eleven years of residue gone in five hours."
MANURE PILE:
Stanton County farmer Steve Arnold says he buys all the manure he can from area feedlots and piles it on his fields in an effort to stop the blowing and building a base of organic material.
TELEGRAPH POLE:
As the topsoil has blown away, it has exposed debris for years gone by that has been buried. This telegraph pole lies at the edge of a field near the railroad tracks. Arnold thinks it was buried in dirt storms decades ago and he has been farming over the top of it.
BURIED TRACKS:
The railroad tracks at the edge of field are almost buried by blown dirt. Arnold says the railroad has been out multiple times to move dirt off the tracks so trains can run.
RIPPLES OF SAND:
What's left of the topsoil has mixed with the sand underneath to form rippled piles across the landscape.
GETTING A PROFILE:
Arnold uses a truck-mounted power tool to lower a soil probe into one of the "blow bumps" at the edge of a field.
SOIL PROBES:
Arnold labels each soil probe with the location it was taken from and the date and stores them in his pickup truck. He will have them analyzed to learn their content.
FUTURE TOPSOIL:
Arnold says that that when there's enough moisture to plant again, he'll use a dozer to level the blown dirt back across his fields in the hope of getting enough topsoil to plant new crops.